Helped a buddy drive from Sacramento, CA to St. Louis, MO over the weekend. We arrived at Zion at 9 in the morning after driving all night (w/ a brief stop in Vegas). We had about 4 hours to spare before getting back on the road, so we chose Angels Landing as our hiking venue. Although it wasn't terribly difficult, there were definently challenging parts. Nothing prepared us for the amazing view atop this huge rock. The weather was perfect, and the surroundings amazing. Wish we could have spent another day or two there. After Angels landing, we decided to take the short jaunt to the Emerald pools. This was a bit more disappointing, more like Emerald puddles, but this didn't detract from the incredible "time out" we had for several hours in the Fall.

Everyone should do this. Makes me wish that Independence monument on the Colorado Monument still had its Pipes. That would be a true classic. FU mrmt prx. YOu know who u r. Respect for the "antiquities act" applied here, even in the early eighties or when ever you decided to ruin it.

Climbed with Maria on our NP tour back in 1999. This was not a class 3 route! Class 2 with consequences would be a better approximation; all the exposed areas are either cabled or chained... at least back in 1999.

Great hike. We ended up reaching the chains in a heavy rain and fog, (This was the October that Zion NP received 10+" of rain). Reached the actual landing and was over shadowed by the quickly coming darkness that only great canyon walls can provide. Reached the bottom of the trail and jumped on the shuttle, and got to see a rare gray fox in the headlights.

I climbed Angels Landing on my birthday with my best friend :) What a great hike!! Loved the challenging route and views from the top. We went in the afternoon and during the week. On weekends it can be a zoo up there so I found out when backpacking the West Rim Trail in the fall of 2005.

It was a desert hot summer day, but we did not take the rangers advice to hike in the morning or late afternoon. We started the hike at 11am. The first part of the trail was totally exposed and it was hot and we felt little stupid, but our general idea was that if we hike off peak hours there will be much less people to deal with. The second part is through a canyon which offered a valuable shade and than to the switch backs which were in some shade as well. The last part on the fin it self was easy and even under the noon sun not that harsh. Hiking at that time was definitely a good choice. Ran in to only about 4 people on the way to the summit and that was a big advantage due to the narrow trails on the fin where must be definitely some “traffic jams” during mornings and afternoons. There is nothing like some one above you falling down or someone behind you being too close. Also I like to move fast. There ware a lot of chains (someone local told us that they added new ones), but I did not use them. I like to use my hands on the rock and the path close to the chains tend to be more slippery = dangerous from all the people walking on the same spots. There are a lot of other choices. This must be the rock climber inside me :-). Also I thought the metal chains must have been very hot, but according to my husband they actually weren’t at all. On the way back I noticed that people who started to hike later had the first part of trail in the shadow, but the canyon and the switch backs were totally exposed to the sun, so I don’t really see that much of a difference. Also after the hike don't forget to use one of the numerous swim holes in the Virgin river. They are right off the beginnign of the trail. It felt soooo good.

This was the first item on the agenda for my first visit to Zion. Started up first thing in the morning--decidedly chilly, but no one else around then, although I ran into several groups on my way down. Pretty cool trail, but I think the NPS should remove those cables. Zion Canyon was every bit as spectacular as I'd anticipated.

Headed over to the Weeping Rock TH to tag Observation Pt afterwards, then over to North Guardian Angel in the afternoon.